Day 4 - A Man Whose Head Was Hit By A Pear or I Bet You Get Bullied A Lot

In the One Hundred Parable Sutra, the third sutra recounts a story about a fool who was hitting another bald-headed fool over the head with a pear. The bald-headed fool took quite a few blows before the other fool stopped. When asked why he didn't run away, the bald-headed fool answered that the fool hitting him was ignorant, that he constantly boasted about his strength, and that he had actually stupidly mistaken his head for a rock. 

Essentially, this guy took a beating because he failed to recognize that his own actions, in this case refusing to defend himself or running away, contributed to his pain. While not necessarily funny, ha ha, it's amusing if not comically sad that so few of us fail to recognize the foolishness of our actions, preferring instead to criticize those of others. 

Foolish actions like this one are so rampant that I can't help but share a few "foolish-oriented" jokes: 

     Are you always this foolish or are you making a special effort today? 

     Don't thank me for insulting you; it was my pleasure. 

     You're cruelly depriving a village somewhere of an idiot.  

     You have an inferiority complex and its fully justified. 

     Anyone who told you to be yourself couldn't have given you worse advice. 

The other day at the airport, a gate employee asked, "Has anyone put anything into your baggage without your knowledge?" To which I replied, "If it was without my knowledge, how would I know?" She smiled knowingly and nodded, "That's exactly why we ask."

At a museum in Northern California, I mentioned to someone that we spent most of our time on the other side of the Atlantic, to which the girl in the museum shop asked, "Oh yeah, where?" "Paris," I responded. "Paris, Texas." She retorted, "Oh yeah, I've been there." 

The other day we pulled into the History Park in San Jose, California. I asked the parking lot attendant if he knew the history behind the San Jose Light Tower. He responded, "No, I don't. I just work here." 


Right about this time, I felt like hitting myself on the head with a pear.